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Vol. XVI, No. 2
69
time for the beginning of NIA languages and the Persian languages including Arabic started in filtering into the NIA languages like Bengali, Hindi, and others, and Puruşottama might have referred to some of the sounds for which he has a symbol like yh (F). However, there is one or two examples of this type of sound in the Mrcchakațik. Such as yhanayhananta for jhana jhananta. Pischel ($ 236) thinks that the reading jhana jhaņanta (1.25) should be written as yhanayhananta and jhagiti>ihatti should be yhatti and even the conjunct consonant with jjh should be yyh, for example, nirjhara> nijjhala>ntyyhala. However, in the printed edition of the Mệcchakațik we do not really find the readings as suggested by Pischel. Puruşottama's inclusion of yh need further investigation to support his reading for the conjunct of jj>yy. Kramadīśvara is very specific and says that the conjunct or non conjuct į or jj becomes y or yy (yo) yukta-yajayoh (V. 87).
From the above discussions, it is quite clear that all the grammarians bave prescribed the palatal į should be changed into semivowel y be it single or conjunct.
One point may be raised in this connection whether y in Māgadhi was pronounced as palatal j or semivowel y (=ia). It is obviously very difficult to answer this question in the present day, but the evidence of the pronunciation of y in some of the NIA languages might give us some clue to guess the pronunciation of y in Māgadhi. As in the Eastern part, particularly in Bengal (and also ia Orisa), y is pronounced as palata! ; or palatal affricate, we can infer that this area has inherited the Māgadhi pronunciation of y, which could be either palatal or palatal a ffricate. That c-varga is pronounced with yc, for example, tiştha>ycitthu, shows that c-varga was palatal or palatal affricate in Māgadhī. This process is not peculiar only to Māgadhi, or for that matter, in the eastern part of India this process started perhaps from the Vedic times. In some of the Sikşās, for example in (the YājñavaIkya Sikşā, Laghu Amoghānandini Sikşā, Keśavi Sikşā etc., the interchanges of j and y are frequently found and the Sikşas have recorded quite a large number of words in the text. In the Laghu Amoghānandini Sikşā some examples are given : bāhya> bāhja, sürya>súrja, upayajñát>upajajñāt, so also in the Prātisākhya pradipa Sikşā, nrpāyya->nrpājjam, dhāyyā>dhājjā.
Yājñavalkya Sikşā (verses 150 ff) has recorded an interesting phenomenon in his book. It is said that y was to be pronounced as jin the beginning of a hemistich, in the beginning of a word, in a consonant group of often an avagraha, otherwise it was to be pronou
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